These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow Vows, #2)(19)

Finn grunts, and Sebastian takes a step toward him before stopping himself, clenching his fists at his sides.

“It suited your plans though, didn’t it?” Finn went on. “She believed her sister was happy and healthy, that our evil uncle gave her all she needed while she stayed here.” His gaze flicks up to Sebastian before dropping back down to the mirror. “You knew she’d see what she hoped to see. You knew her well enough to know that she was full of hope. And you did nothing to warn her.”

“I wasn’t the only one who lied.”

“Perhaps not,” Finn says, calmly replacing the mirror before turning back to Sebastian and staring at the tattoos visible above the prince’s tunic. “Though I didn’t hide as much either.”

Sebastian’s blade sings as he pulls it free of its sheath, but Jalek is there, moving faster than I can track and stepping between Finn and Sebastian. He keeps his eyes on the golden prince.

“Jalek,” Sebastian says, as if he hadn’t noticed him there before. His lip curls in a sneer. “Last time I saw you, you were in the dungeons, where you belong. Perhaps you can return once I become king. You can watch from there as your prince and all your friends bow to me.”

“We bow to no one but Finn,” Jalek growls.

Finn steps forward and puts a hand on Jalek’s forearm. “Easy, friend. My brother’s just here to take our father’s throne.” He waves a hand toward Sebastian and then the throne. “By all means, don’t let us keep you.”

Jalek turns wide eyes on Finn.

“What are you doing?” Kane grumbles.

Sebastian’s gaze drifts from Finn to the polished ebony throne and back. “What did you do to it?”

Finn chuckles and steps toward the dais. “You know very well that I couldn’t disturb the throne even if I wanted to. It’s protected by Mab’s magic.”

Sebastian’s eyes blaze. “You expect me to believe that you want me to take the throne?”

Finn widens his stance and folds his arms, his expression deceptively relaxed. “I never said that.

But you wear the crown, so what’s keeping you from it?”

Sebastian holds Finn’s gaze for several pounding beats of my heart, the tension thick in the air.

These males manipulated and deceived me, but I don’t want to see them tear each other apart.

Sebastian lifts his chin. “I don’t wish you any harm, Finnian. This throne was promised to me before I was conceived.”

Finn scoffs. “Funny. Our father promised me the same thing.”

“Oberon wanted me to rule. He wanted to unite sun and moon, light and shadow.”

“Did he tell you that or did your mother?”

“This is my birthright. My fate.”

Finn arches a brow. “Your birthright? Is that why he gave your crown to a mortal girl?”

Sebastian glares at Finn, and then, in a movement so fast I almost miss it, he sits on the Throne of Shadows.

The room floods with the inky black of a moonless night. The walls shake. The floor buckles.

Terror fills me, but I am locked in this vessel, in this strange body, as the palace threatens to crumble around us.

The moment light fills the room again, Sebastian is launched from the throne to the dais steps and is left sprawling. He’s panting and wide-eyed, but he doesn’t look entirely surprised as he surveys the throne from where it has cast him onto the floor.

Jalek backs away from the dais as he stares at Sebastian, but he shifts his gaze to Finn when he asks, “What’s happening?”

“The Throne of Shadows will not accept someone who doesn’t possess the power of the crown,”

Finn says, strolling toward the dais.

“But . . . he has the crown,” Jalek says.

“You knew this would happen,” Sebastian says through clenched teeth, trying and failing to stand.

This is what I felt yesterday, through the bond. The throne tried to kill him.

Finn shrugs. “The possibility occurred to me when Abriella visited my dreams after bonding with you. You wore the crown, yet she still had powers unique to the Unseelie Court. And then there are these rumors about her throwing darkness onto your mother’s precious Golden Palace, and I had to wonder. After all, no average fae would have the power to do what she did and walk away, let alone the power to do it without having the chance to recover from the potion.”

“I’m not leaving,” Sebastian says. “This palace is as much mine as it is yours, and my guard is marching through the capital now. They’ll be here soon.”

Finn shrugs. “Make yourself at home.”

Kane gapes at him. “You’re kidding me.”

“Sleeping under this roof doesn’t make one king. Mordeus proved that.”

Jalek looks back and forth between Sebastian and Finn. “Would someone explain?”

Finn lifts his chin. “Sebastian may have taken the crown from Abriella, but Abriella still possesses its powers.”





Chapter Six

Like jerking awake from a dream, I’m back in my body, back at the table on the terrace with Misha.

Nausea rolls over me, yanking my stomach into my throat. I push my chair back and stand, crossing to the railing, as if the sight of the drop might root me in my own body enough to let me catch my breath.